Feb/Mar 10 - Singapore Swimming Club

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The way it IN CONVERSATION WITH BERENICE & BARRY LANCASTER used to be by Vincent Especkerman Berenice and Barrie Lancaster were Club members from 1947 to 1957. Former star swimmers, they now reside in Australia - Berenice in Byron Bay and Barrie in Perth. SPLASH: Hello Berenice and Barrie, I hope you liked the December-January 2010 Issue of Splash we sent you. Your article was supposed to be in it but we’ve had to carry it over to this issue BARRIE: What a magnificent magazine! How the membership and facilities have grown in ‘just’ 50 years!!! It brings back memories from the most influential part of my life! It’s been such a long time yet it seems like only yesterday! You have so many events taking place each month; how do you manage? … We actually used to live opposite the Chinese Swimming Club, at 13 Amber Road, and swam there quite often. I often wonder how Neo Chwee Kok got on in life. He was slated to go to the Asian Games, in Manila I think. He was a couple of years older than me and although not a rival, was the fastest swimmer in Singapore at that time. BERENICE: Like Barrie, I was amazed at how your “SPLASH” magazine has evolved – such a variety of activities! In a way it made our years at SSC seem a little dull, although I for one would not have changed them for the world. We had so much more appreciation for the little things, and I suppose our expectations were not so high then....and our lives revolved totally around the club. So thanks again for that brilliant magazine. I loved the layouts as well. My years of marketing experience with Club Med Sydney/Australia have left me with a good eye and appreciation for what is good... and your mag IS good!! SPLASH: Thank you for your generous compliments! Okay, help us fill in some of the blanks in our oral history records. But first, run us through your life since you left Singapore. BERENICE: After I left Singapore I lived in England and Bahrain until I returned to Singapore in 1965 with my ex-husband and 2 beautiful children, Rex and Cindy. From there, we moved to Perth, Australia and after the children had grown up, I joined Club Med, where I worked for 22 years around the world. I now live in Byron Bay, the most easterly part of Australia and am fortunate enough to swim every morning across the stunning bay here with a group called the Stingrays. We swim between 1.6km and 2.4km, depending on the route we take. Last Tuesday was a treat – a large shark, possibly a bronze whaler or a white pointer (which has been hanging around in the bay for a few days) swam right under me!!! I think that day, I beat my 50 meter record making it back to the shore! SPLASH: When was the period you and your family were members of Singapore Swimming Club? BERENICE: I had my sixth birthday on the ship going over to Singapore in 1947 and we left when my father’s contract with Malayan Airways (as it was known then) came to an end on 14 September 1957. 10 BARRIE: I stayed three months longer as I had to sit the finals of the Overseas School Certificate at Raffles Institution where I had been a pupil for some years. It appeared that after Merdeka I might not be able to stay in Singapore, so I went to the UK to look for a career. After a year or two I emigrated to Australia and have lived in Perth ever since. Unfortunately I have been back to Singapore only once, in 1987. It had changed so much even then!
SPLASH: And how did your family come to be based in Singapore? BARRIE: Our father, George who had been working for BOAC as a ground engineer in Africa, had been in a serious accident in which he was hit by an aircraft propeller. After spending a year in hospital, he was given the chance to go to Singapore and join the establishing Malayan Airways, the forerunner of Singapore Airlines. At nine years old I used to say, jokingly, that ‘in Singapore everyone sings because they are poor!’ SPLASH: How different was the Club then, compared to now as far as you can tell? BARRIE: The major difference was, of course, that SSC was right on the sea. There was a stone and cement jetty running into the sea and it was so slippery! BERENICE: Oh, its just grown so much and it is so much more modern and sophisticated now. It was wonderful seeing all the changes when I visited the club in October 2009 but I confess I was sad to see that the beautiful diving structure with 5-, 3- and 1-meter boards, had been taken down and wasn’t replaced by another one. I have very fond memories of the diving competitions and exhibitions, and I remember especially one of the SSC’s coaches, Johnny Johnson, who invented numerouse crazy dives....the main attraction being his famous “change my mind dive” where, off the 5-meter board, he made an enourmous splash with his very large tummy! Is that how you got the name of your magazine? BARRIE: We used to climb over the fence onto the narrow strip of Beach where we used to catch mud-skippers and squirt sea urchins into one another’s face! Barry (far left), and Berenice (second from right) with their parents BERENICE: We just loved the exciting water-polo matches down the deep end every Sunday morning and we always had exuberant audiences for that. I’m sure you still have these today. Barrie was both a swimmer and a water-polo player for the Club and held many records for many years. BARRIE: On the beach beside the Club was the concrete gun emplacement which famously had its gun facing out to sea instead of inland from where the Japanese invaders came. We used to climb over the Club’s fence to that gun emplacement. I still have a sore spot on my foot where a piece of the reinforcing metal went in. I don’t think I told my mother at that time! I didn’t tell her either when I fell in the paddling pool and injured my head. But she found out when I needed stitches! Continued on Page 39 > Fr$ 308 3D Cameron ----------------------------------------- Fr$ 3D HongKong F&E 508 ----------------------------------------- Fr$ 4D HongKong/Disney 728 ----------------------------------------- Fr$ 3D Bali F&E 398 ----------------------------------------- Fr$ 3D Bangkok F&E 420 ----------------------------------------- Fr$ 4D Siem Reap 478 ----------------------------------------- Fr$ 3D Ho Chi Minh 318 ----------------------------------------- GSA for Royal Caribbean, Cooperate booking Price quoted based on twin-sharing, excludes airport taxes & fuel surcharges. Price subjected to change without prior notice. Other terms & conditions apply. www.hotelkiasu.com 19 Tanglin Road, #03-38, Tanglin Shopping Centre, Singapore 247909
Page 4: CONTENTS President’s Message GM
Page 7 and 8: Happy Lunar New Year! Club Manageme
Page 9 and 10: Squash players pose before their ma
Page 11: Guests gather in Pre Function area
Page 16 and 17: 2 Dec 2009 New Members Intro Nite b
Page 18 and 19: Such a thrill to be in the arms of
Page 20 and 21: Altogether now... Ten, Nine, Eight,
Page 22 and 23: 2009 Year-End School Holiday Progra
Page 24 and 25: SSC 10th Golf Medal Competition 200
Page 26 and 27: SSC Annual Squash Age Group Champio
Page 29 and 30: Sushi Making Workshop Better than p
Page 31: KIDZ SECTION For more information,
Page 36 and 37: Club Events UPCOMING EVENTS Usherin
Page 38 and 39: Upcoming Events Entry Forms are ava
Page 40 and 41: Upcoming Events SWIMMING 44 th Doub
Page 42: 2 Feb 4-6 Feb 6 Feb 6-7 Feb 8 Feb 2

Feb/Mar 10 - Singapore Swimming Club

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